Givans gets going

Senoj-Jay Givans, the 2017 World Championships team member, got his 2020 season off to a promising start in Florida on July 4.

Givans placed fourth in the 100-metre final in 10.21 seconds.

With competition curtailed by the COVID-19 outbreak, that run equals the fastest time by a Jamaican this year.

The 100-metre heats at the event, dubbed the ‘Showdown in OTown’, produced notable times.

World 200 metre champion Noah Lyles edged fellow American Justin Gatlin, 9.93 to 9.96 seconds in the first heat with an aiding wind gusting at twice the allowable limit of two metres per second. Givans, the 2013 Boys and Girls’ Championships 100-metre runner-up for Munro College, won his section in 10.25 seconds.

WINNER OF HEAT FIVE

Heat five was won by 2016 World Indoor 60-metre gold medallist Trayvon Bromell in 10.06 seconds with the wind under the limit at 1.6 metres per second.

Lyles, Gatlin and Bromell skipped the final, leaving US 200m/400m specialist Kenny Bednarek to outrun Canadian star Andre De Grasse. Bednarek won in 10.14 seconds, 0.03 ahead of De Grasse. Aaron Brown of Canada did 10.20 seconds and edged Givans for third place.

The 26-year-old Jamaican matched an effort by Oshane Bailey in Kingston on February 29.

His compatriots Brittany Anderson and Christopher Taylor were also in action.

World Under-20 record holder in the 100m hurdles, Anderson won her section of the women’s 200 metres with a wind-hampered time of 23.71 seconds.

Taylor, the 2015 World Under-18 400m champion, ran the 100 metres and clocked times of 10.44 and 10.42 seconds in the heats and a later race at the meet.

Givans, Anderson and Taylor are all based in the US.

Meanwhile, Olympic 400-metre champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo was the star of this low-key affair.

The tall Bahamian won both the 200 and 400 metres, clocking world-leading times of 22.61 and 50.52 seconds, respectively. Other notable efforts came from Bednarek, who won the men’s 200m in 20.06 seconds, and world Under-20 100-metre record holder Sha’Carri Ricardson. The little American had a wind-aided run of 10.94 in the heats and backed it up with 11.05 seconds to win the final.

Last year, she dashed 10.75 seconds to win the NCAA Championships.